The EU's dodgy Article 13 copyright directive has been rejected

"I regret that a majority of MEPs did not support the position which I and the legal affairs committee have been advocating", says German MEP Axel Voss. The rules were aimed to bring the EU's copyright laws in line with the digital age.

"For the sake of the internet's future, we urge you to vote for the deletion of this proposal", the group said.

Mozilla, which campaigned heavily against the proposal, said the result was great news for Europe's citizens.

Collecting society CISAC said it just wants its authors and composers to have a fair income when their work goes online.

Not everyone has celebrated the outcome, with SACEM Secretary-General David El Sayegh calling the vote a "setback". The proposed change would, in theory, eliminate the "value gap" and ensure recording artists receive fair compensation when their work is shared online.

"We live in a world where there are rules to protect the weak in relation to the strong".

"I am proud to be on side of Maltese artists and creators, and I would hope that this would now however present an opportunity for further reflection to be able to reach the right wording which would strike the right balance between all the representatives involved". The Mozilla Foundation endorsed the decision as well in a statement.

He went on: "From the outset our primary focus of this legislation has been concerned with whether or not the internet functions as a fair and efficient marketplace - and now, for artists and authors, it doesn't".

The last European Union copyright reform dates back to 2001, before the start of the digital revolution, and those who are lobbying for the reform are arguing that web giants must be held accountable for the content they feature in order to create a fairer marketplace and fight against piracy.

But US tech giants and internet freedom activists are against the idea, calling it a "link tax" that will stifle discourse on the Internet.

Article 13, meanwhile, is draconian that any website allowing users to post material will need some form of filtering in order to prevent copyrighted material from being uploaded.

He continued: "They've heard the massive opposition, including Internet blackouts and 750,000 people petitioning them against these proposals".